It is the core of the psyche, and psychodynamic psychotherapy and I’m impressed how well Freud nailed this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetition_compulsion
Sigmund Freud’s use of the concept was ‘articulated…for the first time, in the article of 1914, Erinnern, Wiederholen und Durcharbeiten (‘Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through.'[2] Here he noted how ‘the patient does not remember anything of what he has forgotten and repressed, he acts it out, without, of course, knowing that he is repeating it….For instance, the patient does not say that he remembers that he used to be defiant and critical toward his parents’ authority; instead, he behaves in that way to the doctor’.[3]
I don’t think it is just bad things though. it is something about themes of any kind, patterns repeat. So often what we talk about unconsciously refers to the process of the conversation. Its in the nature of the universe.
My psychodrama thesis is essentially about the broader application of this phenomena. Group and the protagonist.